340 
SHARK’S EYE. 
also affect its articulation with the socket. The cartilaginous stem, indeed, 
seems intended rather to give extent than power to the action of the 
muscles. 
The optic nerve is admirably defended, by its position, from all pressure. 
It enters the orbit at the distance of more than the fourth of an inch 
from the cartilaginous stem, and passes into the globe of the eye in the 
angle formed between the inferior and anterior straight muscles : the action 
of these being in different directions, widens the angle through which it 
passes. At its communication with the orbit it is united to the stem by 
cellular substances. 
~ The annexed plate is taken from Mr. Radkin’s preparation. The parts 
are shrunk by the action of the spirit, but their relative position is well 
shown. 
c ■ , ' ■ ‘ ■ ■ . r 
Page 35. — Nepenthes Distillatoria, 
This plant has received various appellations in the different countries 
where it grows. The Chinese call it the pig-basket plant, from the resem- 
blance of its appendage to the wicker machine in which they carry pigs 
to market. According to Rumphius, it is sometimes called by the Malays 
the “ pitcher plant,” because its appendages resemble the vessels in which 
they- collect water ; and sometimes the “ devil’s pitchers,” because they 
are found in uncultivated places supposed to be inhabited by fauns, or evil 
spirits of woods and mountains. 
Nomen : Latine Cantharifera ; Belgice Kannehenshruyd ; Malaice Daun 
Gindi, Gindi enim cantharam denotat seu guttum, quo alicui aqua obfertur 
ad manus lavandas. Amboinice Sobe Laybosso et Aytiba, h. e. arbor excipuli, 
cum quo cantharas comparant. Portugalli ilium vocant Cannekas de Mato. 
In Leytimora Nitu Alaa, h. e. diaboli ollula dicitur, quum in incultis crescit 
locis, quos fauni, h. e. sylvarum vel montium diaboli inhabitant, unde et 
quibusdam Gindi Zeytang. Quidam etiam hanc Malaice in Sumatra nomi- 
nant Gada Gada. Herbarium Amboinense, tom. v. p. 123. 
To the same author we owe an account of several superstitions held by 
the Malays respecting it. He states that the natives of Amboyna were unwil- 
ling to bring him specimens of the plant from the mountains, from the full 
persuasion that if the appendages were gathered and emptied of the water, 
heavy rain would overtake them before their return. In conformity, with 
